


i traced my fingers along your trail

by tosca1390



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-10
Updated: 2011-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-14 15:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tosca1390/pseuds/tosca1390
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wanted to lose herself in the shapes and feel of his body, the sound of his voice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i traced my fingers along your trail

Elena didn’t want to let him go, to let him breathe—it was too good to be true, really. Elijah had let her live, let Stefan go—

“Elena—“

She kissed Stefan silent, her heart racing; she could hear it in the soft quiet of the room. He rolled onto his back and she followed, chasing his mouth with hers. She wanted to lose herself in the shapes and feel of his body, the sound of his voice. He was ¬ _here_ , he was back, and _god_ how she loved him just for being so stupidly himself.

“Elena, why did Elijah let me out?”

Sighing, she rested her forehead against his, her hair falling around them like a dark curtain. “He found me here.”

Stefan fixed a stare on her, dark and skeptical. She could nearly see the wheels turning in his head. “But you can’t leave the house.”

Huffing, she rolled onto her side next to him. “Yeah, thanks for that, by the way. Like Damon needed another reason to be insufferably patronizing towards me.”

He cupped her face, skin cool against hers. All her nerves fluttered with the heady contact. “Elena.”

She slipped her arm across his middle. “Elijah was in the house.”

A weird, taut silence settled between them. Stefan stilled completely, his fingers curled across the curve of her cheek. “He was in the house,” he said flatly after a while.

Elena curled against his side, the two of them pressed close in her queen-sized bed. It had always seemed too big for just her, all her life. “Yes, Stefan.”

His fingers moved from her skin, carded through her hair. “Elijah. In your house.”

“Jenna invited him in.”

Stefan exhaled shortly; he radiated tension, even in the touch of his hand along the line of her waist. “You need to tell her everything.”

She pressed her face to his shoulder, shutting her eyes. “I can’t,” she said, a distinct wretchedness settling through her, overlapping against the joy of having Stefan here, out from the cave and back into the light.

His hands landed on the curve of her spine, the small of her back, heavy and soothing. “It’s too dangerous not to.”

Her face flushed; she breathed in deeply, woods and old stone and dirt and _Stefan_. It felt like home, more than Matt or Damon ever could or would. “I just—I wanted someone to stay out of this unscathed. She was thrown into everything, with me and Jeremy, and—“

“I understand, Elena, but you’ve got to tell her. It’s better for her to know,” he said quietly, his chest rumbling under her.

Downstairs, she could hear movement in the kitchen; a male voice pitched deeply, Jenna laughing. Alaric was over again, then. Taking another moment, she breathed in deeply and sat up, pushing her hair off her face. “I know,” she said, watching him carefully.

He was smiling, but the lines of his face were wan, and there were circles under his eyes, deeper in the warm yellow light of her room. “Damon said he brought you something to eat,” she said softly, touching his temple, drawing her fingertips along the line of his jaw. “You don’t look like you’ve eaten. Did he not bring it?”

He caught her fingers in his, putting them to his mouth. “He did. It’s okay. I’m fine,” he said. “What deal did you make with Elijah?”

An icy slip of suspicious trailed along her spine. Fine, after days and nights with no food and Katherine? “Live my life. Don’t serve myself up on a platter to Klaus. He would take care of the rest,” she said slowly. “What happened with Katherine?”

“Nothing,” he murmured, sitting up and kissing her again, his mouth soft and sweet on hers.

She kissed him absently, their fingers intertwining between their bodies. “Seriously,” she whispered against his lips. “Did she get out too?”

With a firm hand on her waist, he twisted her body and pressed her back down to the bed. His body over hers was familiar and reassuring, the weight of the life she wanted to live. “No, she’s still inside. Elijah compelled her.”

Hitching a thigh across his hip, she curled her fingers hard against his. “He’s very powerful,” she said softly, their mouths breaths apart.

Stefan looked at her for a long moment; her toes curled, her face flushed as he did. She didn’t know if she’d get used to it, the longing in his eyes. It was a reminder of another time, _his_ time; men didn’t look at women like that anymore. “It’s going to be okay,” he said finally.

She wanted to believe that, but she didn’t know how. Her life had become intertwined with forces beyond her reckoning, supernatural and other. She felt decidedly powerless, surrounded by powerful people. Even Jeremy, reckless young Jeremy, had become some sort of champion, while she was left to be moved and toyed with at will.

“I wanted some control over all this,” she said abruptly, her jaw tightening.

He hovered over her, dark shadows and a white slice of a smile. “What do you mean?”

“When I went on my martyr kick, or whatever degrading term Damon has decided on,” she bit out. “It was a way to make a choice.”

“You have choices, Elena.”

“I know. I chose you. I chose to deal with Elijah, to believe Katherine—but in the larger scheme, I didn’t. My life was slipping out of my own control, Stefan,” she said, curling her fingers into his t-shirt. “I didn’t want to die. But it was _my_ choice in this whole weird mess.”

He shifted over to lie on his side next to her, a hand stroking through her hair, pushing it over her shoulder. “I understand,” he said quietly after a long moment. “I do. It was still unbelievably stupid, but I understand.”

She breathed out slowly, relaxing into his side. “Okay. Good,” she murmured. “I’m so glad to have you back.”

He lay a hand on her hip; it felt as hot as a brand through her thin shirt. “Me too.”

Tilting her head up, she kissed him once more. He covered her mouth with his, covered her body with his. She felt swallowed, enveloped, but always breathing, always anchored by him.

*


End file.
